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Note that as this page primarily deals with a Japanese release, the Japanese names are used.
Gunnm: Martian Memory
Gunnm Martian Memory cover
Developer(s) Yukito Products
Publisher(s) Banpresto
Platform(s) PlayStation
Release date(s) August 27, 1998 (Japan)
Genre(s) Action role-playing game
Mode(s) Single player
Media/distribution 1 CD-ROM

Gunnm: Martian Memory (銃夢 ~火星の記憶~ Gunnm Kasei no Kioku?) is an action role-playing video game for the PlayStation based on Gunnm. To date it is the first of two Gunnm video games, and the only game developed by Yukito Products. It was only released in Japan, and not in any other parts of the world.

Overview[]

Martian Memory is an adaptation of the Gunnm manga, following the protagonist and title character Gally from her discovery in the Zalem dump heap by Daisuke Ido up through and beyond her career as a TUNED agent. The story has numerous differences from the original and also includes additional elements that creator Yukito Kishiro had conceived when he ended the original manga in 1995, but was unable to implement at the time. This includes Gally going into outer space,[1] a key changing of the original ending of the manga. Some of the elements that appear in the game later appear in Last Order.

Plot[]

While investigating the Zalem dump heap, Daisuke Ido finds the head and torso of a female cyborg. He takes it home and is able to resuscitate it. The female cyborg has no memories of who she is, so is named Gally. At this point the player can begin to control Gally. The plot largely follows the manga until Gally is brought to Zalem by Desty Nova, when it diverges into a new story.

Gameplay[]

The story is advanced through the completion of story and boss rounds at each level, with cut scenes rendered in real time. The player navigates Gally through 3D environments from a third-person perspective, exploring areas and interacting with NPCs, including other characters who appear in the series. In story mode, the player has the option of entering into Battle Mode by pressing the "Select" button, or avoiding combat by running past enemies. In fights involving multiple opponents, the player fights each in turn. Gally does not earn experience points, but can upgrade the capabilities of the cyborg body that she uses, becoming progressively more powerful in offense and defense.

Gally vs

The boss fight against Jashugan. Unlike in the manga the challenge race does not involve four other motorball players as allies.

Two aspects of the Gunnm world featured in the original story, the hunter-warrior system and motorball, both appear in the game. The former serves as a means of earning money and is present throughout the story, going beyond the time that Gally spent as a hunter-warrior. The player can exit story mode at any time and travel to certain areas via the world map to fight and defeat enemies, some of whom appear on the bounty list. There are two types of bounties that appear: recurring bounties and one-off bounties. The former are enemy characters that are encountered in certain areas and can be defeated during the course of the story or by later revisiting an area. They change depending on the area and on how powerful Gally's cyborg body is. One-off bounties are boss and sub-boss characters who can usually only be defeated once, but have a much higher bounty value. A record is kept of the number of kills of each bounty. Earnings can then used to purchase weapons, body upgrades, and supplies.

During the motorball arc, Gally competes in several matches as part of the story. She races around the track, during which she must defeat the other players within a 3 minute time limit. She faces bosses at the end of the track in more advanced matches, concluding with the final race against Jashugan.

In the early part of the story Gally needs to visit Factory 33 for bounty payments, body upgrades, and item and weapons purchases. After the story moves beyond the Scrapyard these functions are handled by deckmen, who also act as save points.

Conception and development[]

Kishiro was not satisfied with the ending of the original Gunnm, which he had been forced to cut short due to personal reasons. He conceived the idea of making a Gunnm role-playing game in October 1995 in order to tell the "Space Story" that he had not been able to present in the manga after he had finished the first chapter of Haisha. After proposing the idea to his chief editor, it was brought to Banpresto. Following the completion of Haisha, Kishiro worked on the game's story, character design, and packaging. It took him a month to do the cover illustration, which is a variation of another illustration of Gally with a blue background that he did for a magazine illustration.[2][3] Kishiro initially conceived the game as using 2D graphics, but went along with a proposal to use 3D graphics instead. It was originally planned for release in 1997, but was delayed a year to 1998.[4]

Influence[]

Kishiro eventually decided to take the story that he had developed for Martian Memory and expand it further, using it as the basis for the manga Last Order, which is a continuation of Gunnm. The following elements from the game are expanded on in Last Order:

References[]

Reviews[]

External links[]

Template:Martian Memory

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